"Once a pharmacy is gone from a local community, they may never come back. And it is their customers, many of whom don't have other options, who miss out on expert care from their local pharmacy," he added.
"It is good to see that the government is looking to help general practices through these times, but this support needs to be extended to another vital part of the primary health care sector, the community pharmacy."
Richard Brown, who owns and operates Kaitaia's Far North Pharmacy, agreed that these were difficult times. He was still selling some retail products but there had been a "definite dip," but March had set a prescriptions record, a lot of people "getting in early," before the lockdown, which would have an impact this month, and perhaps for some time to come.
"Prescriptions will definitely be down this month, but it's hard to say what will happen," Mr Brown said.
"I expect the lockdown to remain at Level 3 for a while after it is relaxed from Level 4, so it might take a wee while for things to get going again."
He had done "all the right things" to protect his business, and his employees, a number of whom were at home in isolation, but he could not predict how busy the pharmacy would be when they returned to work.